Rainy Sunday (and a partly cloudy Wednesday)

On Sunday it poured down rain again, a massive storm came through and it was rainy all day. This must have been annoying to the people organizing Riverfest - the big outdoor festival that runs every Memorial Day weekend in downtown Little Rock. I didn't go to any of the concerts this year, but I always look forward to getting a shot of the fireworks that go off at the end of the festival. But it was raining so hard, it looked like they might get rained out.

With some time to kill before the fireworks would go off, I drove around town looking for something to get pictures of. I stopped at Burns Park, and got out in the rain for a few pictures. Here's another shot of the old cabin in the park, which was part of an old homesite built back before the Civil War.


And the nearby covered bridge:


There was angle of the bridge that I saw and tried to get a decent shot of, but it just didn't look right in the rainy weather. I filed it away as something I'd have to try again soon.

I drove around other parts of Burns Park, and it was amazed that several places along the river were under water. Wow, we had a lot of rain that day This was taken looking out the window of the car - trying to be all artsy.


That shot was taken while driving around the soccer fields in the park. Not surprisingly, there wasn't anyone out playing. There were a few geese out and about.


From there I drove into downtown Little Rock, which would normally be packed with thousands of people for Riverfest. But the rain seemed to have kept most people at home. The top of the buildings were shrouded in fog, and I again wondered if they would bother shooting off the fireworks in the rain.




I drove back home and checked the internet to see what the fireworks plan was. Most of the concerts scheduled for that day were postponed, but the fireworks were still set to go off - although an hour earlier than normal. So again I drove to downtown, and set up at the spot I've used the past few years for fireworks pictures. It's a good vantage point, where the fireworks pop right in between the buildings. But with the fog and rainy weather, it didn't look like it would work that night. I wasn't sure if the fireworks would even show through the fog, and began to realize that it was mistake to set up there. It didn't help that it was pouring down rain and very windy.

At 8:30 the fireworks began, and I never saw them. Sure enough I could hear them, but the fog was so thick that all I saw was just colored clouds from the fireworks. This is the best shot I got of the fireworks - and you can't even tell they were shooting off fireworks.


I should have found a vantage point closer to the river, where you could actually see the fireworks. But I gave up and drove home, while the fireworks were still going on. I saw that even right at the river, the fireworks would shoot up and then disappear into the low clouds. The Riverfest people should have really postponed the fireworks until Monday night.

But earlier today I drove back out to Burns Park for another try at getting a few shots at the covered bridge. On Sunday I saw a neat rose bush growing near the bridge, but the rain was weighing the flowers down. I wanted to try it in some drier weather, and with maybe some better skies in the background. It rained again earlier today, but I drove on out there anyways. I had hoped for a bit of a blue sky in the background, but it was still a bit cloudy in the background and it turned out just as another white sky. Oh well.